Past Selection Committee

Kate Brindley

Kate has over 20 years’ experience in the visual arts and museums sector including being Head of Arts and Museums, for Wolverhampton where she led the RIBA award winning capital development of Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

From 2005-2009 Kate was Director of Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives and lead for the South West Renaissance programme. Her achievements included developing M Shed, a £26million new museum, and the record-breaking Banksy V Bristol Museum exhibition 2009.

Kate was Director of mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) until March 2014 where she lead the visual arts programme and a significant governance change to University control.

She is now CEO of the Arnolfini in Bristol.

Since 2008 she has been one of only four national advisors for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Art Funding Programme, including being the key advisor for the ‘Our Museums’ initiative and she chairs the national steering group.

She is an Associate of the Museums Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Andrew Nairne

Andrew Nairne became Director of Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge in November 2011.

From 2008-2011 Andrew was Executive Director, Arts for Arts Council England. In this role he led the development of Arts Council England’s 10 year Strategic Framework for the Arts, ‘Achieving great art for everyone’, published in 2010.

Previously, Andrew was Director of Modern Art Oxford (2001-2008), the first Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts (1997-2001), Visual Arts, Director of the Scottish Arts Council, and Exhibitions Director at CCA Glasgow.

Paul Huxley RA

Paul Huxley’s work first came to prominence in the 'New Generation' exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1963. He has since exhibited widely in the UK, America and the Far East.

He lived in New York for two years during the mid 1960's on a Harkness Fellowship and later became a Trustee of the Tate, Professor of painting at the Royal College of Art and Treasurer at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Paul's recent solo exhibitions include the Azerbaijan International Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, followed by a 2016 show at the Mark Richard Gallery in Santa Fé, New Mexico. Upcoming exhibitions include a retrospective at the Mark Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, Rothko’s birthplace.

Sickboy

(Image by: Joanna Dudderidge, 2012)

A leading artist to emerge from Bristol's infamous graffiti scene, Sickboy's humorous and subversive street exploits have placed him firmly in the upper echelons of the British street art movement. One of the first UK artists to use a logo in place of a tag, Sickboy's iconic red and yellow temple and "Save The Youth" slogan appear on walls and wheelie bins worldwide. A pioneer in the graffiti scene to exchange the traditional tag for a colourful moniker, the artist explains 'the temple icon has become what people know me best for. It is meant to represent love and positivity in the shape of a building. The colours are there to make you happy, and my graffiti is not supposed to push you away or make you feel isolated. I want everyone to be in on the party."

The multi-disciplinary artist has built one of the largest bodies of street art works to date, being tipped by the leading financial press as one of the movement's most bankable artists. Formally trained at art school, the artist's current practice includes interactive installation, abstract narrative painting, film and light sculpture, audience participation and public intervention. With appearances in Banksy's Oscar nominated Exit Through The Gift Shop and 2008's Stay Free public installation staged outside the Tate Modern earning him undisputed global recognition. Since 2008, Sickboy has boasted over four solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally including his most recent showcase Make It Last Forever at The Outsiders London.

Sickboy is currently based between his London and Barcelona studios, exhibiting and curating across emerging international art fairs and self-funded projects worldwide.

Helen Legg

Helen has been director of Spike Island, Bristol, since September 2010. Previously she was Curator at Ikon, Birmingham for 5 years, working on exhibitions and offsite projects as well as the development of Ikon Eastside, a second gallery based in a former factory building in Digbeth, an industrial area of the city.

In 2014 she was a judge for the Turner Prize and the Contemporary Art Society’s Museums Award and in 2013 was a selector for the Paul Hamlyn Artist’s Awards. She is chair of Visual Arts South West, on the advisory board of the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership and serves on the acquisition committee for Frac Midi-Pyrénées 2012-15.

Paul Hobson

Paul Hobson is the Director of Modern Art Oxford. Working for more than twenty years in the arts sector in London, previous positions include senior roles at the Contemporary Art Society and The Showroom, the Serpentine Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts. Paul read History at Oxford University and holds postgraduate degrees in aesthetics and contemporary visual theory as well as arts management and policy.

Cherie Federico

Cherie Federico is the Director of Aesthetica Magazine which was founded in 2003. Aesthetica Magazine is one of the leading British art and culture publications with 180,000 readers in print and digital. The publication has national and international distribution, a presence in all major galleries and is exported to 20 countries.

A strong believer in clean design, striking photography, critically engaging content, Cherie is a key protagonist of bringing the best new contemporary talent to the fore alongside established practitioners. She is also the Director of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, which is a BAFTA qualifying festival and screens films from over 40 countries, as well as attracting key industry from across the sector.

In addition to this, Cherie is also the Director of the Aesthetica Art Prize, which champions new talent and has 3,500 applications with artists from across the world with artists going on to be commissioned by Absolut Vodka, Channel 4 and participate in biennales and exhibitions worldwide, as well as works being purchased for corporate collections such as Hiscox.

Liz Gilmore is the founding director of Jerwood Gallery, which opened to the public in Hastings in March 2012. Liz directs the critically acclaimed exhibition programme at the gallery. Previous exhibitions have showcased work by many British artists including Gillian Ayres, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Marcus Harvey, Rachel Howard, Chantal Joffe, Ansel Krut, Keith Tyson and Rose Wylie, Previously Liz was Head of Visual Arts for Arts Council England, SE, where she played a key role in nurturing the development of a network of coastal galleries. An art historian and gallery specialist by training, Liz is also an experienced educationalist, university lecturer and cultural consultant, notably working with artists to establish and lead an acclaimed informal learning programme at the National Gallery, London.

Alison Bevan (née Lloyd) is Director of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol – England’s only regional Royal Academy of Art, housed in a spectacular purpose-built Grade II* listed Gallery. She joined the RWA in September 2013 and is passionate about putting this “jewel in the crown of England’s exhibiting venues” at the heart of the region’s cultural life.

After graduating in Art History from Nottingham University in 1986, she spent a 14-year career in public galleries in Wales, latterly at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, where she was Exhibitions Officer. From 1999 to 2013, she was Director of Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, which specialises in exhibiting the work of the Newlyn, Lamorna and St Ives colonies (1880-1940), a subject on which has become regarded as an expert and has lectured in the UK, USA and France.

Mary Griffiths is Senior Curator (Modern and Contemporary Art) at the Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Previously she has worked at Manchester Art Galleries, the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent and the National Media Museum in Bradford. At the Whitworth, she curates exhibitions and develops the modern and contemporary collection. Recent exhibitions include Marina Abramovic Presents… (2009, co-curated), Projections: Works from The Artangel Collection (2011), Nikhil Chopra: Coal on Cotton (2013), Cornelia Parker (2015), Richter/Pärt (2015, co-curated). She is currently curating Raqs Media Collective’s first major UK exhibition, opening 29 September 2017.

Mary has been a member of the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions and Advisory Committee (2012/13), a judge for the Paul Hamlyn Awards for Visual Arts (2014), and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for Wales in Venice. Mary is an artist with works in several collections, including the Arts Council Collection. She studied English at Newcastle University, Museum Studies at the University of Manchester, and Fine Art (MA) at Manchester Metropolitan University.